For Want of A Sandwich - A Franz Ferdinand Lives Wikibox TL
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Sixte I
Sixte I (1 August 1886-14 March 1934) was the first King of Wallonia, from the country’s foundation on 10 September 1920 to Syndicalist invasion in October 1927, even if he pursued his claim to the throne until his death.
At his birth, it seemed improbable that Sixte would ever become a ruler : he was one of the many children of Duke Robert of Parma, whose former dukedom had been annxed by Italy long before his birth. His older, disabled half-brother Elia inherited his father’s claims and fortune but the rank of Sixte increased when his sister Zita married Archduke Karl of Austria, the second in line to the Austro-Hungarian throne ; he joined the Austrian Army during the Great European War by fidelity towards his in-laws.
When Germany pondered the feasibility of dividing the Kingdom of Belgium, it seemed that Wallonia would be ruled by a German prince, maybe one of the sons of the Kaiser : nevertheless, the Austrians pushed forward the candidacy of Sixte, as a devout Roman Catholic, a French-speaker, a gallant officer of the Austrian Army and also a warranty that the new puppet kingdom wouldn’t be annexed into the German Empire, making it too big a continental power. The Germans accepted and Sixte became the ruler of the new country with Minister-President Jules Renkin’s approval.
Sixte had no time to adjust to his new kingdom, as Wallonia was overrun by the Syndicalists in the aftermath of the Battle of Verderonne and annexed into the Confederation of Workers’ Republic. He died into exile in 1934, as the chances of his line’s recovering the throne looked bleak. His only son Antoine would return to Liège in 1948 ; in the mean time, his younger brother Xavier became King of Hungary.
Antoine
Antoine (14 March 1922-26 February 2003) was the King of Wallonia, hailing from the House of Bourbon-Parma, succeeding his father’s upon his death on 14 March 1934, even if he only effectively ruled Wallonia from the liberation of Wallonia from Syndicalist forces on September 1948, with a small interruption in Summer 1968.
Born as his father was the reigning King of Wallonia, Antoine would see his country invaded by the Syndicalists in 1927 and his father die in 1934 ; he took up residence in Hungary, in his uncle’s kingdom, as the chances of him ever returning to power looked bleak ; nevertheless, he returned as King of Wallonia on September, 11 1948, when the Syndicalists were defeated.
Antoine returned to a Kingdom he left as a child, and where Syndicalist sentiment, along with Rattachist (annexation to France) feeling were both very strong : as hopes for a Belgian reunification seemed close after the World War, a Syndicalist uprising in 1950 killed all hopes. Later, even if Antoine pursued a peaceful co-existence with Flanders, marrying Leopold III's sister, Léon Degrelle's election in 1955 only increased Walloon bellicism and nationalism, as the persecution of French-speakers in Flanders and the prospect of a takeover of Brussels became bigger and bigger. In June 1968, the Situationist Revolution in France spread to Wallonia after months of unrest, and Antoine had to flee Wallonia along with Degrelle, only regaining his throne with German military help ; Wallonia became a pariah country, isolated from neighbouring Flanders by the Wall of Belgium. A military coup in 1985, along with many years of incidents with Flanders, led directly into the First Belgium War (1993-1996) ; as the Walloons had hoped for annexing Brussels, it had to accept the Treaty of Aachen and the establishment of the Free City of Brussels, a solution that didn’t pleased any of the parties.
Antoine ruled continuously for 55 years ; when he began his reign, Wallonia was a troubled and ruined country, and when he died in 2003 and was succeeded by his son, it had managed to complete its democratization, in spite of not coming to a close with the Belgian Question.
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Sixte II
Sixte II (born 15 May 1957) is the current King of Wallonia, having succeeded his father, King Antoine, on 26 February 2003. He hails from the House of Bourbon-Parma.
The eldest son of Antoine of Wallonia and Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Flanders, his accession after the long reign of his father reignited interested over Belgian reunification ; he hasn’t officially pursued such a commitment and chose to instead rule as a constitutional monarch, refusing to take a statement over the Brussels Crisis and the Second Belgian War, that happened during his reign, remaining committed to the independence of Wallonia and support for the Reichspakt and European construction. He has as such supported the German occupation of Wallonia, that has started in 2016 after the Second Belgian War and continued until 2020.
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What does "read for eight hundred" and who is Alex ?
Thank you very much for the comments, yet I didn't figured out who would be Jedi-Bendus in this world... I think some would be IOTL Scientologists...
Well, I don't really see the Church of the Force as a Scientology analogue : they are really peaceful and aren't inclined to scam their members or take a toll over their revenues. It's more of a mix between Raelism and Hare Krishna. As of science fiction, well, the genre has his success, but as Jodorowsky's Dune tanked at the box office, there never was a craze ; science-fiction these days is more about anticipation than about space operas. As of L. Ron Hubbard, he's known ITTL as a decent yet a bit obscure pulp science fiction author, having managed to have Excalibur published (and lowering his expectations) and having his nervous breakdown better treated as it happened during his service in the Navy. Battlefield Earth is perhaps his best known work ; there was a B-movie adaptation that won a cult following. His magnum opus, the Thetan Saga, has badly aged and is only known by a few passionates, but still endures.
What is the most LGBTQ+ friendly place on Earth ITTL?
How do people feel about interracial marriage ITTL?
Are there future plans for more celebrity articles? (no spoilers pls!)
How do people feel about interracial marriage ITTL?
Are there future plans for more celebrity articles? (no spoilers pls!)
Ah, it's a Jeopardy reference, just stuck in my head for some reason! Sorry about that, and hey, no stress about listing people off. That being said, it's an interesting idea. Reading your response, it seems like it maintains a better reputation than Scientology at least, though that is not particularly hard in and of itse.f.
Also, an idea now that I've thought about it. Looking back over the list of amendments to the US constitution, I notice no two term limit set out there though the maximum any one President appears to have served following the POD is two. I'd be interested, when you get around to it of course, to see if any of the Presidents ran for a third term or the like (Unless of course it became law via a different process than through the constitution in which case, belay that thought).
I have a very weird question about this timeline: There were two American ambulance drivers during WWI, both of whom knew each other, who became very important businessmen after the war; Ray Kroc of the McDonald's Corporation and Walt Disney of The Walt Disney Company. Do these men have different lives in this timeline? Are they even in the history books?
On that note, what are animated movies and fast food like ITTL in general
Country profile - Wallonia
Wallonia is a country in Western Europe, bordered in the north by Flanders, in the east by Germany and in the east and west by France.
History
After the invasion of Belgium by France and its occupation of Germany during the Great European War, German authorities had lended an ear to separatist concerns in the country, such as the Fleming August Borms and the Walloon Jules Destrée, who each considered that the union of the two peoples had been a sham since 1830 and could no longer coexist ; the Treaty of Amiens upheld this view, as on 10 September 1920, Belgium was separated in two countries, the Kingdom of Flanders in the North, with its capital in Brussels, and the Kingdom of Wallonia in the south, with its capital in Liège. Former minister of the Colonies Jules Renkin was chosen as the country’s new Minister-President ; Sixte of Bourbon-Parma, veteran of the Danubian Army and brother-in-law to the heir presumptive of the Danubian Federation, was elected as King instead of a German prince.
For the Walloons, the new order came as a relief, as they had feared for decades their marginalization in a Flemish-majority Belgium, and came out of the war with its industries quite intact, but the country was still small and scarcely populated ; the issue of French-speaking Brussels, an enclave in the middle of Flanders, was resented by many, as was their status as a virtual puppet of Germany ; a “Rattachist” sentiment, that would see Wallonia annexed to France in the near future, also came into fruition, even if it was postponed by the Syndicalist Revolution. But the new nation had no time to build itself, as it was overrun in 1927 by Syndicalist armies in the aftermath of the Battle of Verderonne ; Wallonia became an integrant part of the Confederation of Workers’ Republics, its heavy industry serving the mass production of the CWR landships and becoming a fiefdom under Julien Lahaut, a Doriot associate. Serving as the Syndicalist main base for the invasion of Germany during the World War, Wallonia was liberated by Allied troops in September 1948 along with the rest of the Low Countries. Sixte’ son, Antoine, returned as King.
With the electoral victory of Hubert Pierlot’s pro-Belgian reunification coalition in the 1949 elections, the return of Belgium as a single entity seemed at hand, but the country had been devastated by Allied bombings during the World War and the Syndicalist movement remained strong in Wallonia ; following the 1950 Brussels riots and the assassination of Pierlot by a Syndicalist later in the year, all hopes of reunification were dashed. Integrated into the Reichspakt and the European Community, Wallonia instead turned towards its own buildup as a nation, separate from both Belgium and France, that came bigger with the annexation of the French cities of Maubeuge and Valenciennes in 1951. Léon Degrelle, a veteran of the Legions of Christ, was elected Minister-President on an integralist and anti-syndicalist platform in 1955 ; after a syndicalist strike in Mons in 1960, Degrelle’s executive powers were considerably increased, and the government advocated for the granting of a special status for Brussels, acknowledging its separate culture from the rest of Flanders. As Wallonia’s government built iself on nationalism, the opposition, including the left-wing, turned more rattachist.
The 1968 Situationist Revolution and resulting Civil War in France and the linguistic riots the same year in Brussels sent shockwaves throughout Wallonia : a popular uprising, composed of situationist, syndicalist and rattachist opponents, managed to topple Degrelle and King Antoine had to call the Germans for help in the face of a new revolutionary wave ; Wallonia was quickly invaded by Germany to serve as an advanced base for an intervention in France. German military governor Ulrich de Maizière quelled down dissent and ordered the building of the Wall of Belgium, separating effectively Flanders and Wallonia, in order to scale down tension in the Low Countries. The Germans withdrew in 1971 and a new democratic Constitution was adopted the same year ; the Walloon government officially renounced all references to rattachism in 1981.
An industrial country, Wallonia was among the nations hit the hardest by the 1983 economic krach, as the country was subject to a neo-syndicalist guerilla, mass unemployment and popular discontent ; General Benoît de Bonvoisin seized power in a military coup in 1985 and deliberately worsened relations with Flanders, repeatedly asking for the cessation of Flanderization and all persecution of French speakers in Brussels, threatening to turn to arms to protect the population of Brussels. After a military incident on the border in 1988, the Walloons launched a surprise attack on Flanders during the night 2 to 3 February 1993, starting the First Belgium War (1993-1994) ; the German military intervened less than a year after the start of the conflict, occupying both countries until the 1996 and the Treaty of Aachen, that proclaimed the immediate destruction of the Belgian Wall and the independence of Brussels as a sovereign city-state within Flanders. In Wallonia, democracy returned with the personnel of the military dictatorship prosecuted. King Antoine died in 2003 was succeeded by his son Sixte II.
Nevertheless, if peace had returned to Walloon politics, the same wasn’t true in Flanders that came under an ultranationalist administration under Bart De Wever, calling for the return of Brussels ; after the Prince Laurens incident in 2007, the invasion of Brussels by Flemish forces in 2014 resulted in the Second Belgium War (2014-2016) ; Wallonia, under Minister-President Joëlle Milquet, immediately bestowed assistance to the Brusselians and fought back the Flemish invasion until the Germans intervened once more, putting the country under occupation until 2020, returning to the statu quo ante.
Political situation
Under the 1971 Constitution, Wallonia in a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy ; the system of governance is closely inspired by the instutitions that existed in Belgium before the Great European War, with Parliament being composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives and the judicial system being based on civil war and the Napoleonic code. The Minister-President is appointed by the King and is responsable in front of the Chamber of Representatives ; the current Minister-President is Charles Michel, former Mayor of Wavre and leader of the liberal Parti réformateur liberal (PRL), leading a coalition of liberal, social-democratic and christian democratic parties, that won a majority in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. Politics in Wallonia tend to be center-left to center, with a strong neocommunist party that managed to rank second in the last general election. The King, currently Sixte II of Bourbon-Parma, has no executive powers other than appointed the Minister-President.
Situation sociale, population
With 4 million habitants, more concentrated on the Belgian border (with Charleroi as the country’s largest city) than in the countryside, Wallonia is less populated than Flanders but is still a major hub for immigration, with a sizeable Chinese and Arab community, along with, due to the recent political upheavals in France, a still growing French émigré community, concentrated in the former French city of Valenciennes. French is the official language, with Dutch losing track as the secondary language of students. Since the Treaty of Aachen and the restoration of democracy after the Bonvoisin military regime, Wallonia is a strong democracy nowadays.
Economy
Before the 1983 economic crisis, Wallonia’s economy was concentrated on its heavy industry and coal mining in Liège and Hainaut, all sectors that never recovered from the crisis ; the linguistic particularity of Wallonia also discouraged foreign investors as compared to France and Flanders and the country had to rely heavily on European Community’s foreign aid. Even if Wallonia managed to refocus itself on services, with a particular stress on logistics due to its strategic location between France, Flanders and Germany, unemployment remains massive in Wallonia and the foreign debt drags the whole economy down.
Military
Under the Treaty of Oslo, that ended the Second Belgium War, the Walloon Army, along with the Flemish Army, is now limited to 15,000 men, with military draft abolished and delivery of military equipment being closely monitored by a Reichspakt independent commission. Before that, the Walloon Army had been celebrated due to their brilliant tactics during both Belgium Wars.
Culture
Being torn between its Belgian roots and its linguistic and cultural closeness to France, Wallonia made much to promote its image of independence both at home and abroad. With a flowering artistic industry, in literature (Henri Michaux, Amélie Nothomb, Georges Simenon), comic books, music, architecture, cuisine and cinema (Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux) all renowned, Wallonia seems now to have conquered their own status, taking pride in managing to distance themselves from French cultural trends as much as they can. As Walloon cartoonist Philippe Geluck (originally from Brussels) said in the famous Walloon absurd humour, “We are French without champagne, but Walloons with beer”.
Wallonia is also a strong nation in terms of sports, in Formula one, tennis and cycling ; its national association football team qualifying for almost FIFA World Cup since 1978, co-hosting the competition with Netherlands and Flanders in 1982.
History
After the invasion of Belgium by France and its occupation of Germany during the Great European War, German authorities had lended an ear to separatist concerns in the country, such as the Fleming August Borms and the Walloon Jules Destrée, who each considered that the union of the two peoples had been a sham since 1830 and could no longer coexist ; the Treaty of Amiens upheld this view, as on 10 September 1920, Belgium was separated in two countries, the Kingdom of Flanders in the North, with its capital in Brussels, and the Kingdom of Wallonia in the south, with its capital in Liège. Former minister of the Colonies Jules Renkin was chosen as the country’s new Minister-President ; Sixte of Bourbon-Parma, veteran of the Danubian Army and brother-in-law to the heir presumptive of the Danubian Federation, was elected as King instead of a German prince.
For the Walloons, the new order came as a relief, as they had feared for decades their marginalization in a Flemish-majority Belgium, and came out of the war with its industries quite intact, but the country was still small and scarcely populated ; the issue of French-speaking Brussels, an enclave in the middle of Flanders, was resented by many, as was their status as a virtual puppet of Germany ; a “Rattachist” sentiment, that would see Wallonia annexed to France in the near future, also came into fruition, even if it was postponed by the Syndicalist Revolution. But the new nation had no time to build itself, as it was overrun in 1927 by Syndicalist armies in the aftermath of the Battle of Verderonne ; Wallonia became an integrant part of the Confederation of Workers’ Republics, its heavy industry serving the mass production of the CWR landships and becoming a fiefdom under Julien Lahaut, a Doriot associate. Serving as the Syndicalist main base for the invasion of Germany during the World War, Wallonia was liberated by Allied troops in September 1948 along with the rest of the Low Countries. Sixte’ son, Antoine, returned as King.
With the electoral victory of Hubert Pierlot’s pro-Belgian reunification coalition in the 1949 elections, the return of Belgium as a single entity seemed at hand, but the country had been devastated by Allied bombings during the World War and the Syndicalist movement remained strong in Wallonia ; following the 1950 Brussels riots and the assassination of Pierlot by a Syndicalist later in the year, all hopes of reunification were dashed. Integrated into the Reichspakt and the European Community, Wallonia instead turned towards its own buildup as a nation, separate from both Belgium and France, that came bigger with the annexation of the French cities of Maubeuge and Valenciennes in 1951. Léon Degrelle, a veteran of the Legions of Christ, was elected Minister-President on an integralist and anti-syndicalist platform in 1955 ; after a syndicalist strike in Mons in 1960, Degrelle’s executive powers were considerably increased, and the government advocated for the granting of a special status for Brussels, acknowledging its separate culture from the rest of Flanders. As Wallonia’s government built iself on nationalism, the opposition, including the left-wing, turned more rattachist.
The 1968 Situationist Revolution and resulting Civil War in France and the linguistic riots the same year in Brussels sent shockwaves throughout Wallonia : a popular uprising, composed of situationist, syndicalist and rattachist opponents, managed to topple Degrelle and King Antoine had to call the Germans for help in the face of a new revolutionary wave ; Wallonia was quickly invaded by Germany to serve as an advanced base for an intervention in France. German military governor Ulrich de Maizière quelled down dissent and ordered the building of the Wall of Belgium, separating effectively Flanders and Wallonia, in order to scale down tension in the Low Countries. The Germans withdrew in 1971 and a new democratic Constitution was adopted the same year ; the Walloon government officially renounced all references to rattachism in 1981.
An industrial country, Wallonia was among the nations hit the hardest by the 1983 economic krach, as the country was subject to a neo-syndicalist guerilla, mass unemployment and popular discontent ; General Benoît de Bonvoisin seized power in a military coup in 1985 and deliberately worsened relations with Flanders, repeatedly asking for the cessation of Flanderization and all persecution of French speakers in Brussels, threatening to turn to arms to protect the population of Brussels. After a military incident on the border in 1988, the Walloons launched a surprise attack on Flanders during the night 2 to 3 February 1993, starting the First Belgium War (1993-1994) ; the German military intervened less than a year after the start of the conflict, occupying both countries until the 1996 and the Treaty of Aachen, that proclaimed the immediate destruction of the Belgian Wall and the independence of Brussels as a sovereign city-state within Flanders. In Wallonia, democracy returned with the personnel of the military dictatorship prosecuted. King Antoine died in 2003 was succeeded by his son Sixte II.
Nevertheless, if peace had returned to Walloon politics, the same wasn’t true in Flanders that came under an ultranationalist administration under Bart De Wever, calling for the return of Brussels ; after the Prince Laurens incident in 2007, the invasion of Brussels by Flemish forces in 2014 resulted in the Second Belgium War (2014-2016) ; Wallonia, under Minister-President Joëlle Milquet, immediately bestowed assistance to the Brusselians and fought back the Flemish invasion until the Germans intervened once more, putting the country under occupation until 2020, returning to the statu quo ante.
Political situation
Under the 1971 Constitution, Wallonia in a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy ; the system of governance is closely inspired by the instutitions that existed in Belgium before the Great European War, with Parliament being composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives and the judicial system being based on civil war and the Napoleonic code. The Minister-President is appointed by the King and is responsable in front of the Chamber of Representatives ; the current Minister-President is Charles Michel, former Mayor of Wavre and leader of the liberal Parti réformateur liberal (PRL), leading a coalition of liberal, social-democratic and christian democratic parties, that won a majority in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. Politics in Wallonia tend to be center-left to center, with a strong neocommunist party that managed to rank second in the last general election. The King, currently Sixte II of Bourbon-Parma, has no executive powers other than appointed the Minister-President.
Situation sociale, population
With 4 million habitants, more concentrated on the Belgian border (with Charleroi as the country’s largest city) than in the countryside, Wallonia is less populated than Flanders but is still a major hub for immigration, with a sizeable Chinese and Arab community, along with, due to the recent political upheavals in France, a still growing French émigré community, concentrated in the former French city of Valenciennes. French is the official language, with Dutch losing track as the secondary language of students. Since the Treaty of Aachen and the restoration of democracy after the Bonvoisin military regime, Wallonia is a strong democracy nowadays.
Economy
Before the 1983 economic crisis, Wallonia’s economy was concentrated on its heavy industry and coal mining in Liège and Hainaut, all sectors that never recovered from the crisis ; the linguistic particularity of Wallonia also discouraged foreign investors as compared to France and Flanders and the country had to rely heavily on European Community’s foreign aid. Even if Wallonia managed to refocus itself on services, with a particular stress on logistics due to its strategic location between France, Flanders and Germany, unemployment remains massive in Wallonia and the foreign debt drags the whole economy down.
Military
Under the Treaty of Oslo, that ended the Second Belgium War, the Walloon Army, along with the Flemish Army, is now limited to 15,000 men, with military draft abolished and delivery of military equipment being closely monitored by a Reichspakt independent commission. Before that, the Walloon Army had been celebrated due to their brilliant tactics during both Belgium Wars.
Culture
Being torn between its Belgian roots and its linguistic and cultural closeness to France, Wallonia made much to promote its image of independence both at home and abroad. With a flowering artistic industry, in literature (Henri Michaux, Amélie Nothomb, Georges Simenon), comic books, music, architecture, cuisine and cinema (Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux) all renowned, Wallonia seems now to have conquered their own status, taking pride in managing to distance themselves from French cultural trends as much as they can. As Walloon cartoonist Philippe Geluck (originally from Brussels) said in the famous Walloon absurd humour, “We are French without champagne, but Walloons with beer”.
Wallonia is also a strong nation in terms of sports, in Formula one, tennis and cycling ; its national association football team qualifying for almost FIFA World Cup since 1978, co-hosting the competition with Netherlands and Flanders in 1982.
As of the most GRSM-friendly place in Earth, I think the United States, along with Scandinavia, would rank high here. In the rest of Europe, except for religiously conservative places like Italy, Hungary or France, the general feeling is "they just want to be happy, leave them be".
Interracial marriages are still a touchy subject, though. It's not a matter anymore in the United States or in Asia, but as of former colonist countries, they would prefer to have each race not getting along together. Racism is still vivid.
Of course, there will be celebrity articles, I have some ideas...
Sorry, I'm a Frenchman, so I haven't been touched by the grace of the late Alex Trebek !
Yup, there isn't any term limit, they didn't feel like adopting one amendment about it. The exception being Theodore Roosevelt, who served a total non-consecutive 16 years in the White House. Driscoll pursued a third term, Yarborough wanted to but bowed out, Robertson was defeated in the primaries. All other two-terms Presidents upheld the Washington tradition.
I must admit that I have the outline but haven't worked on it. I will.
Well, I had plans for Walt Disney but not for Ray Kroc, I must look into it. As of these matters, I have to look about it.
Now, THIS is what I want to see.
Another excellent update! We all appreciate the hours of research, hard work, and creativity that goes into every post here.
Independent Wallonia is something that’s not done enough.
It's worth noting that Kroc is of Czech descent. Perhaps the Archduke not getting shot butterflies away his family going to America. 🤔
Frank Keating
Frank Anthony Keating II (born in St. Louis, MO, on February 10, 1944) in as American politician and attorney who served as the 48th President of the United States from 2001 to 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he had previously been the 21st Governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2000 and Representative for Oklahoma’s 1st district from 1983 to 1993. He is also the second Roman Catholic to have occupied the Oval Office, after Al Smith (1933-1941).
Moving with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma before he was six months old, Keating graduated from Cascia Hall Preparatory School, Georgetown University (B.A. in history) and the University of Oklahoma College of Law (J.D.) before serving as an agent for the Federal Agency for Counter-Terrorism on the West Coast and moving back to Tulsa to become an assistant district attorney. Elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives as a Conservative in 1973, he was elected to the Oklahoma Senate, serving from 1975 to 1983 as its majority leader. In 1982, he was elected as Representative for the First district of Oklahoma, succeeding fellow Conservative Jim Hewgley, Jr. ; he would serve in the House of Representatives from 1983 to 1993 before retiring, serving in the Committees for National Security and Judiciary ; he was mentioned several times as a candidate for Attorney General in a prospective Conservative administration from 1989 to 2001.
After two years of private life, Keating received the Conservative nomination for Governor of Oklahoma, tantamount for election in a solid Orange state ; he defeated Republican nominee Jack Mildren and Progressive nominee Bernice Shedrick in a year of Conservative landslide ; he would-be reelected in a landslide in 1998. As Governor, Keating would focus on education, growth, environment and tax cuts, earning a nationwide image as a “compassionate conservative”, winning approval from all three major parties, all while positioning himself as a critic of the Gore and Weld administrations.
As such, Frank Keating announced his run for the Conservative nomination in August 1999 from Tulsa, Oklahoma, running as a centrist candidate ; since the days of the Robertson presidency and the surprise upset of William Weld in 1996, the Conservatives had lost three elections in a row and the impopularity of the Republican administration meant that the hour seemed at end. In spite of stemming from a small state, Keating quickly won the support of moderate Conservatives, cruising through a crowded field that divided the dominionist, integralist and nationalist wings ; Indiana Senator Dan Quayle was the last major opponent to concede after the Conservative Super Tuesday and Keating chose long-term Senator Zell Miller from Georgia as his running mate.
In the general election, Keating campaigned on a promise of restoring America’s economic preponderance in the world, that was being undermined by China, along with focusing on education, war on drugs and the environment, stressing that the Conservatives wouldn’t necessarily destroy the better achievements of the other administrations; it was a stretch from the approach of the outgoing Weld administration, that was bent into destroying the big government, and the platform of the Progressive candidate, Governor of California Tom Hayden, who would promise to restore the social welfare achievements of the McGovern era along with portraying Keating as a “new Alfalfa Bill Murray, the Pyrist from 1936”. In the general election, Frank Keating would prove that he had convinced the independent and centrist voters, winning with 39.8 % of the popular vote, defeating soundly both Hayden and Weld.
The Keating administration, inaugurated on January, 20 2001, was the first of the new century and the first Conservative administration in twelve years. The selection of a cabinet would reflect the moderate approach of Keating, choosing his political model, former Governor of New York Jack Kemp as Secretary of State and like-minded Conservatives like Joe Lieberman, Marc Racicot and Chuck Hagel for the Departments of Treasury, Justice and National Security Advisor ; Keating would also stress the main focuses of his administration by recruiting Republican wunderkind Mitt Romney to head the Department of Commerce and Business, former Mayor of Boston Raymond Flynn for the Department of Education and also reached to the GOP by recruiting Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to be his Drug Czar ; former presidential candidate Kent Hance, designated to represent the United States in Philadelphia, would synthetize the other Conservatives’ reaction to the cabinet, saying that “I agree with the President’s decision for a multi-party administration, but he should have opened it to the Conservatives”.
On the domestic front, his hand tied by both a Progressive majority in Congress and the Balanced Budget Amendment passed during the Weld administration, the Keating administration adopted a bipartisan approach, wanting to ameliorate the Conservative’s image since the days of Pat Robertson, focusing on education, child protection and healthcare reform. President Keating managed to increase spending on secondary education, apprenticeship, and promoted vast offers of federal scholarships and school vouchers, stressing the importance of a stronger American educational system for the near future, while nudging Ivy League colleges and universities into accepting more students from underprivileged backgrounds. The Child Protection Act was passed in 2002, increasing legal penalties against child abuse, sexual but also physical, and raising to 25 years the statute of limitations in cases of pedophilia and incest ; the most famous consequence of the law was the resignation and incarceration of Conservative Representative from Illinois Dennis Hastert in 2008, following the 2006 revelations of child molestation committed by the Representative during his years as a high school wrestling coach. The Keating administration’s tries at lessening the income tax and the burden of the welfare system upon the budget were blocked due to Progressive action ; one of the downsides of the Keating administration was also the indefinite postponement of the American manned mission to Mars, due to the failure of the 1999 launch, German success in 2003 and also to help to relieve the federal budget ; the Ares program would only be resurrected during the Edwards presidency, ending with a successful American landing in 2013. On the other side, the 2003 coronavirus epidemic in Asia convinced him to have the United States prepare for a nationwide response to a global pandemic, that would be regularly updated before coming at hand in 2020.
On the international side, Keating more or less continued the isolationist and America First approach of the Weld administration, focusing his efforts upon global nuclear disarmament (the Vesoul Incident in 2001 only helped Keating to promote his agenda) and the Havana Treaty Organization, such as integrating the new states of former Canada, such as helping to arbitrate in the Newfoundland Crisis (2003-2004), convincing Borealia to adopt the US dollar as its currency (2002) ending American military involvement in Mexico (2003), formally relinquishing control of the Panama Canal to Panama (2002) and trying to convince Bolivia to renounce their nationalizations program. Out of America, the Keating administration focused on increasing their trade relations to help strengthen the United States’ position in the world economy, as China undertook the US as the world’s first economy ; such investments could be seen in Scotland, Liberia, Kongo and Russia. In other international matters, the US adopted a more backseat approach, such as during the Berlin Conference on Iran (2004). If President Keating enjoyed cordial relations with German Chancellor Peer Steinbrück, his confrontational approach on China was more tenuous, on trade issues but even on military matters, after a US Air Force surveillance aircraft has been shot down above Thailand on April 1 2001, resulting in a small diplomatic incident. But the international issue on which President Keating was most lauded was his welcoming of Muslim refugees from Bharatavarsha and Philippines, for which he was heavily criticized inside the Conservative Party ; in a speech from the Los Angeles International Airport on May 1 2003, President Keating, surrounded by refugees hailing from Sindh, replied that “I am an American, a Catholic and a Conservative, in that order ; for these three reasons, I can not refuse help for people discriminated for their religious beliefs”.
But the most controversial issue during the Keating Administration was the increasing of the War on Drugs. Tying it to his education policies, saying that “the future of our children also come through liberating them from the evils of addiction”, he unsuccessfully tried to repeal the legalization of cannabis that had been achieved during the Weld administration, instead focusing on military commitments against drugs cartels in Southeast Asia and Mexico, maintaining a military presence on the US-Mexican border after the ending of military occupation in Mexico by 2003. He also created a row inside the Havana Treaty Organization by calling President of Colombia Pablo Escobar “a secret drug kingpin”. The War on Drugs, led by Tom Ridge, deliberately increased the law penalties for drug possession and trade, increasing the US carceral population by a threefold, a so-called war that wasn’t without smudges, as evidenced by the April 2004 revelation by CBS News of prisoner abuse by federal agents in prison facilities in Texas and California, that included torture, rape, physical and sexual abuse of drug offenders. The approach of the Keating administration of drug trafficking was considered less radical than against terrorism, such as the shooting rampage of Neo-Doriotist terrorist John Allen Williams in Washington D.C. on October 3 2002, that resulted in 17 deaths, and the smallpox terror attack in the New York-Idlewild International Airport in New York City, on October 3 2003, a bacteriological attack perpetrated from the Kahanist terorrist group Jewish Task Force, that resulted in more than 160 dead and more than 2500 infected with the disease. The culprits were sentenced to death penalty but the general impression was that “under President Keating, it’s more prejudiceable to carry an ounce of cocaine than to send smallpox through air ducts in an airport”.
In spite of Conservative loss during the 2002 midterms, President Keating began his campaign for re-election in 2004 with an approval rating superior to 50 %, and seemed that he would win a second term thanks to his bipartisan approach. Criticized on the left for his War on Drugs, he was also denounced by the right due to his moderation, the lack of true Conservatives policies and his dovish foreign policy ; he thus had to deal with a primary challenge from Governor of Missouri Rush Limbaugh, which he managed to defeat after the Wisconsin primary. Promising to accelerate his reforms for education and tax cuts and re-asserting moral values, Keating could easily fend off the lackluster campaign from the Republican nominee, Michigan Senator Charles Menem.... But he couldn’t deal with the populist and overtaking campaign from the Progressives, finally united under South Carolina Senator John Edwards, that would replicate Keating’s 2000 approach to the independent voters. In November 2004, Frank Keating came a close second to Edwards, only losing by 0.2 %, but graciously conceded. During his lame duck term, President Frank Keating oversaw the American relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami and finished to mount a federal emergency plan in case of a massive pandemic outbreak, that would be re-adapted with the Wuchang pneumonia in 2020.
In spite of a call to draft former President Keating back for the 2008 presidential election, the former President has since lived in retirement between Washington, D.C. and Tulsa, advocating for education reform and development for the Havana Treaty Organization ; if the Brownback administration didn’t consulted him much, former President Keating was the official US representative to John XXIV’s papal inauguration in 2012, honoring the American Pope. His son Chip serves as Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma since 2015.
Yeah, for the good reason that an independent Wallonia would be quite unviable economically. But I couldn't imagine a curbstomped France getting to annex southern Belgium.
Well, Kroc was born before the POD, so it's not a direction.
Nice, a world with independent Newfoundland and Ryukyu. No Sikkim or Formosa, though?
It seems like a bunch of nations got new constitutions in 1989, but they were from all over the world. Maybe just a coincidence.
It seems like a bunch of nations got new constitutions in 1989, but they were from all over the world. Maybe just a coincidence.